Trying to do a series on British Industrial has actually proven a little more difficult than I perhaps expected, partly my own fault due to issues with time and other commitments. But, following on from Talk Show Host: 043 with ded.pixel, I’m now continuing the series with a band with a near-unpronounceable name for many.

That band is Beinaheleidenschaftsgegenstand ([Bein-a-hel-den-shafts-gegen-stand], Noun: The thing that is almost the thing you want.. but not quite.), a UK industrial act from the south of England who are, to put it mildly, moving in a different direction to most of their peers.

Their influences are in a different realm – and very much a long distance from the dancefloor – so for me they were an obvious band to talk to, to find out more about their influences, views and musical interests. I caught up with Tiffanie and Simon from the group to discuss this and more.

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amodelofcontrol.com: What are the origins of the band name, seeing as from what I can tell it is a made-up German word from How I Met Your Mother, that means “the thing that is almost the thing that you want, but it is not quite” – does this have a bearing on the inter-band relationships and friendships?

Tiffanie: Myself and Simon were partners for a while and when we broke up we missed making music together so we decided to give it a go. Writing has always helped me slay demons, the pen is mightier than the sword after all. I did explain to Simon that I had written some songs about the anger I was feeling and he very graciously put music to All Cut Up. Not many people would agree to do that so I think it shows you just how amazing a person he is really. The first two EPs tackle the feelings of a relationship breakdown, but I feel that’s now in the past, we are great friends and I am lucky to have him on my side. Team BeinE!

amodelofcontrol.com: You’ve taken a very different view to your sound than many others in the UK industrial sphere, and indeed your Facebook page says “Industrial is an
attitude, not an genre.” A laudable theory, but is that really the case?

Simon: I think there’s a core concept of experimentation at the heart of a lot of industrial, be it in making instruments out of scrap metal or borrowing sounds and rhythms from different genres – if you look at bands like FLA, or iVardensphere, there’s the aesthetic of taking influences from a really wide variety of musical styles and traditions; and I think that at the moment we’re in an exciting place where Industrial is becoming more diverse and experimental again, after a period where the dominance of a couple of sub-genres led to a degree of stagnation. We certainly feel that we’re an industrial band, that, in terms of how we make our music, we have that experimental aesthetic

amodelofcontrol.com: Do you find that with your sound being so fundamentally different to your peers in the UK at the moment, that you find it difficult to “fit in”, or do you not worry about that?

Tiffanie: Well, I personally don’t “fit in” anyway, so why would I make music that does? Trying to fit in has caused me nothing but misery and heartache but I am now at the point where I can say “Fuck It!” And stop worrying about it. It’s been a watershed moment and very positive.

Simon: It’s not really been a problem – we have had fantastic support from other bands in the scene in terms of feedback, willingness to remix our music into different forms and help getting gigs – particular thanks to Dave and Gemsy (Dreams Divide) for pushing us in the early days. In a lot of ways being a bit different has also helped us – it’s given us opportunities to play gigs with bands from outside the industrial scene, which provides us with exposure to a different audience – It’s interesting how many people in other musical scenes are really influenced by the original generation of industrial bands (TG, Coil, Test Dept., etc) but have no connection with the modern ‘scene’.

amodelofcontrol.com: I got distinct nods to a few bands when listening to you, and also watching your performances live. The ghosts of Throbbing Gristle and Coil in particular seems to loom large in the soundscapes you create… Tiffanie’s vocals – both in delivery and content – seem to come from an uncomfortably obvious, deeply personal place. Is there a subtle form of challenging and confronting the audience going on here, I wonder?

Tiffanie: The type of music we make has deep lyrics to go with it, otherwise it just wouldn’t work. I am quite a political person and have lots of opinions rightly and wrongly on lots of things and this is just another way ( besides Facebook!) to let it out. There is a deliberateness to it, we like to hold up a dark mirror and reflect back the ugliness of society, it’s ugly music for ugly people, but more so people who recognize that they are or can be ugly on the inside.

amodelofcontrol.com: Also, Tiffanie, how has your experience been as a female performer in a frankly male-dominated scene?

Tiffanie: I am really lucky. I have a lot of people looking out for me due to my Autism as it’s really hard to tell peoples intentions and unfortunately I have been used and ripped off in the past. But the support I have had from other male musicians here in the UK and over the pond has been amazing, and I can’t even begin to express my gratitude for it. We have some really great people in the Industrial scene, and sometimes I think the good stories about how musicians support each other gets overshadowed by conflicts going on elsewhere. DJing as a female has been a lot tougher and I have had more negativity doing that from both male and female DJs than male musicians, and somewhat sadly jealousy from people I thought were friends, but again many chats with other musicians and DJs has taught me that it’s something a lot of people experience and, at the end of it an experience makes a song.

amodelofcontrol.com: I was fascinated by the closing moments of your pre-Christmas live show in London, where you took on a Current 93 track (Falling Back In Fields of Rape) and turned it into something that might have fitted on Neubauten‘s recent Lament release and live show. Did you have a particular message in mind when performing this?

Tiffanie: As you know, we appear to be going back to that time of Nuclear armament and fighting between super powers and it’s terrifying! I don’t want anyone to go through what we went through, not knowing if you were going to wake up in the morning ,or that you were going to be burned to a crisp on the way to school, or even worse, trying to survive in a Nuclear Winter with no shelter or food or safe water. War is horror beyond horror.

Simon: There’s been a really worrying trend in recent years to sanitise war and its consequences – attempts to glorify the slaughter of the First World War, the unquestioning acceptance of drone strikes and bombing of civilian areas, the hostility towards conflict refugees – there’s a growing idea that war is something that happens elsewhere, without consequences for us, and that’s an attitude that needs to be challenged.

The latest bein-e EP Shadows is out now